Korean Job Discussion Forums

[daddy daycare]

I am just curious to find out how many of you do pay for your own apartments, and how many of your school's pay.


I will tell you why, before the TROLL patrol intercepts the message.

My school has put us up in a crappy apartment when we arrived here. Now that our contract renewal is up, and they previously promised to get a new apartment, everything seems to be lost in translation.

Now they say if we want to move we need to pay for the new apartment ourselves.......(otherwise not a bad place to work for......)

How many of you pay for your own apartments?

How many pay towards your own apartments, where the school pays some and you the rest?

What are you willing to add to the price that your school is paying? 100 000 won ??

Our 2 year old son has also been in and out of hospitals with colds, influenza, bronchitis, lung infection etc.. (diagnosed by the doctors)....we think it is the apartment we are living in. Every second week back to the doctors.....

Awaiting reply...

[kprrok]

I found my own apartment, paid for it myself, and my boss gives me a monthly allowance for housing. Better for him b/c he isn't responsible for bills or any deposit.

[yeremy]

I would guess that many if not most foreign English teachers do not have their own apartments or studios but live in housing their schools found for them. Schools or hagwons in Korea often delegate the duty of finding housing for their NET's to a Korean English teacher, who may likely feel overworked, so they'll settle on the first and most convenient studio/apartment they are shown by a realtor. I've spoken to several Korean English teachers at EPIK functions and camps, and that is what they told me.

I have rented three apartments (1996-1997, 2003-present) with my wife. Generally, if you want your own apartment often you'll have to either pay for all of it or part of it out of your own pocket. I'm in EPIK now and we got our own apartment for which I get the housing allowance.

When I was in GEPIK, in Gyonggi-do, my wife and I had our own apartment. We refused to live in another school supplied box or studio. We went to a local real estate office, paid the deposit ourselves, which my school took over the following year. We paid the difference between the monthly wolsye and all of the utility bills, taxes (for living in the city) and apartment management fees.

When you do go to a real estate office you will have to take your contract with you and a friendly translator. The negotiations will likely take longer than you think is necessary but that's how it goes here. Just keep looking until you find something suitable. If your employer has a long-term contract for your current apartment, you may be out of luck. You might want to consider changing jobs if that is the case.

However, your first line of defense probably is cleaning but you know that. Good luck. Hope it works out for you and your child.

[D.D.]

I found a nice place for my second year and they said it was too much.

I asked how much was too much they said 450000.
I said my place was 400000 last year and they said that was the max they could pay.

So I offered to pay 50000 a month and now live in a cool place.

The cheap places and nice places don't have such a difference in price. For 50000 more my new place is 3 times bigger than the box I had last year.

[Oreovictim]

Argh! This is your son's health we're talking about here. Screw your boss! You mentioned coming here and already having a son, so I'll assume that you're not married to one of the locals here. You're probably on an E-2 visa, right?

If you weren't I'd say, "New apartment or find someone else." Actually, you should do that anyway. Did you already resign? They probably waited for you to sign the second contract before telling you that.

[TheChickenLover]

I agree with the above poster. Your family's health should be a far higher priority than any form of employment. To secure this, I would strongly suggest you get your own place or just buy an apartment.

Chicken

[TheChickenLover]

I agree with the above poster. Your family's health should be a far higher priority than any form of employment. To secure this, I would strongly suggest you get your own place or just buy an apartment.

Chicken

[TheChickenLover]

I agree with the above poster. Your family's health should be a far higher priority than any form of employment. To secure this, I would strongly suggest you get your own place or just buy an apartment.

Chicken

[DC in Suwon]

One more!

[DC in Suwon]

One more!

[kiboy6]

My wife and I are applying for Pusan EPIK positions for September. We've just been told that this year Pusan will be providing NO couples apartments for EPIKers.

Pusan was the only location choice we put down on our application.

How feasible would it be for us to use the housing allowance instead? Would we have to make a prior "tourist trip" to arrange everything, and then leave and re-enter on our EPIK E2? If so would we have to go all the way back to the UK or would a visa-run to Japan work?

If arriving in Korea a couple of weeks early is possible, just how much of a headache is finding our own place likely to be? I know about the key-money issue and should be able to borrow enough to get around that.

Thanks a lot in advance for any advice

[Straphanger]